Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/267

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FOREIGN ADVENTURERS IN INDIA.
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under Bussy related in the first book in this volume. Subsequently to the treaty of Versailles, and till the death of Bussy at Pondichery in January, 1785, Raymond occupied the same post with the rank of captain. But on Bussy's death, he, with the consent of the governor, took service with Nizám Ali Khan, the Súbadár of the Dekhan.

The Súbadárs of the Dekhan had always been partial to the French. It had been under the brother of the Nizám Ali that Bussy with his corps of Frenchmen had gained so great a renown. In July, 1758, Bussy had been compelled, by the policy of Lally, to leave Haidarabád. He then made over charge to M. de Conflans. The following year, however, Conflans surrendered to the English, and the ruler of the Dekhan had been forced not only to renounce the French alliance, but to agree never to permit a French contingent to be quartered within his territories.

This treaty was regarded as binding by Nizám Ali Khan when, in 1761, he imprisoned and succeeded his brother. But there was another brother, Basálat Jang, who held in jaghír from Nizám Ali the district of Gantúr. Basálat considering himself as bound by no treaty, and anxious to have in his service a body of foreigners upon whom he could depend, took into his pay a body of French troops. These were commanded by the younger Lally,[1] a nephew of the more famous general. Nizám Ali, moved by the English, required

  1. Transactions in India. London, 1786.